Over 100,000 pieces of illegally imported Digital Video Disc (DVD) movies, cellphone and laptop accessories and sacks and drums of unidentified chemicals worth Php10M were recently seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) after these items were found to have been misdeclared as housewares by operatives of the newly created Revenue Enhancements for the Attainment of Collection Targets (REACT) Task Force.
According to Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, the one forty-footer container van of illegally imported entertainment items, computer and telecommunications accessories came from Guangzhou, China and was consigned to a Quezon City based trading company named RICHFLOW TRADING.
“Businessmen who think they can still do away with their illegal activities at the Bureau of Customs should better think twice these days. We have enhanced our cargo monitoring initiatives at the country’s various ports through REACT,” Biazon said adding that,”REACT officials report directly to me and are under instructions to spare no one, no matter who are the people behind any smuggling attempt.”
“We are going to dig deeper into the records of RICHFLOW TRADING to check if it has also been involved in previous illegal transactions at the Bureau of Customs, and to trace their possible connections in the BOC, if any. We will strongly pursue for the application of maximum penalties provided by law, to all those involved in smuggling,” the Commissioner added.
The Richflow Trading shipment from China was declared in its entry as 1,475 packages of housewares which arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) aboard an Evergreen Line vessel.
REACT Head Teodoro C. Sagaral for his part said, his team recommended for the Customs Commissioner’s issuance of the Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) after their April 17, 2012 full examination of the Richflow Trading shipment for violations of Section 2503 of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP), Republic Act No. 9239 or the Optical Media Act and Republic Act No. 8293 or the Act prescribing the Intellectual Property Code.
